Search - Lorin Maazel - New Year's Concert 2005, Vienna on DVD

Experience shows in this performance!

Alan Majeska | Bad Axe, MI, USA | 01/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Experience shows in this performance! Lorin Maazel (b. 1930) has conducted the Vienna Philharmonic New Years' Concert for the 11th time in this live video from January 1, 2005. The playing of the Vienna Philharmonic and their rapport with Lorin Maazel is splendid, precise and musical in every way.

There are many selections by the Strauss family I had not heard of in this program, so if you have other New Years' Concert DVDs by Muti, Ozawa, Carlos Kleiber, or Harnoncourt, you have no need to fear duplication. There are of course some of the traditional favorites: Tales from the Vienna Woods, Pizzicato Polka, and On the Beautiful Blue Danube, but most of the polkas and waltzes are new to me. I am not an authority on Johann Strauss and his family's waltzes, polkas, and marches, but have heard some of the "Greatest Hits" and Maazel offers some material which is "off the beaten path". One other note: the traditional closing Radetzky March is not performed, out of respect for the victims of the Tsunami storm disasters which hit the southern coast of Asia and reached eastern Africa in the closing days of 2004. The sponsors of this concert wanted a more solemn, serious tone to end the concert.

If you like the New Years' concerts, you'll like this. Sound and picture quality (widescreen, 16:9) are first rate, and all one could ask for. Highly recommended!"

The sound quality is good but not video....

A. Kwon | Dayton, OH USA | 02/09/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I was hoping that Deutsche Gramophone did a better job this year in video recording compared to the 2004 concert. But it turned out to be even worse. I watched it over my HDTV through 720P upconversion capable DVD player. You can see a plenty of small artifacts and fuzzy images throughout the performance. In my opinion, the 2004 concert has a slightly better video recording. Obviously they did not record the performance using HDTV cameras. But the music and sound quality are still excellent. I hope they will start using HDTV cameras in future New Year concerts since everybody is moving in that direction."

Splendid New Year's Concert from VPO and Maazel

John Kwok | New York, NY USA | 02/26/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This year's concert was devoted almost exclusively to music by Johann Strauss II. Without question, it is among the Vienna Philharmonic's best New Year's Concerts, led by a long-time collaborator at the podium, American conductor Lorin Maazel, who has conducted the orchestra since the early 1960s. The orchestra responded enthusiastically to him, following his tempi even when he wasn't conducting (In two works he plays violin solos, most notably the "Tales from the Vienna Woods" waltz.). On a somber note, the traditional final piece of the concert, Johann Strauss' Radetzky March was not played, a silent tribute offered to the victims of the December 26th earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean (However, the other traditional encore, the "Blue Danube" waltz was played.). Fans of both the Vienna Philharmonic and Lorin Maazel will be interested in acquiring this DVD."